Miami Heat president Pat Riley returning to run the Lakers’ front office would be intriguing, and it checks two boxes with his history with both the team and with LeBron James. But is it feasible? And would it work? (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

• At the moment, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka appears to be permanently ensconced at the top of the team’s basketball operations organizational chart. He seems to have Jeanie Buss’ ear, and her trust – or at least they both have Kobe Bryant in common – and he’s the one handling the search for a new coach.

ESPN, also known as the Worldwide Leader in Speculation And Filling Dead Air, dropped that one back into the hopper Friday. It would be intriguing, and it checks two boxes with Riles’ history with both the Lakers and with LeBron James. But is it feasible? And would it work?

• A week ago, shortly after Johnson quit, the 74-year-old Riley, president of the Miami Heat for the last 23 years, was asked about it and shot the possibility down.

“No doubt, I have a history with that team,” he told reporters in Miami. “I was there 20 years, and I have a lot of friends still in the organization. I had a good conversation with Magic after he stepped down, and I’m sure they’re gonna work it out. But I’m not gonna be a part of that. That’s not what I want to do.”

But Stephen A. Smith tossed it back out there Friday morning, and it again had the fan base buzzing. And it would be so Lakers: Bring in a big name, and bring in someone with Lakers ties.

• The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the Lakers are the NBA’s version of the Raiders. Long after the run of championships has ended, there persists an organizational attitude that stunts growth and impedes progress: “The same old ways worked just fine then, they should work now, and anyway, we’re the Lakers (or Raiders) and you’re not.”

The row of Larry O’Brien Trophies in the window overlooking the practice courts is not indicative of future success. A superstar hire, or a superstar signing, might get the fan base energized but does not by itself counterbalance a sharp, savvy collection of basketball minds … like the one the other NBA team in town has assembled.

• And for those Lakers fans who hope against hope that Jerry West would bolt his consultant’s role with the Clippers and return to their team? Don’t hold your breath. You might turn purple.

• We look at fan interest in L.A. now and we assume that it will always be thus, Lakers No. 1 in the hearts and minds of Angelenos, Clippers a distant No. 2.

Do not assume.

Keep this in mind: There are a lot of 7- and 8-year-old kids in L.A. who have never seen a Lakers championship, and who might be starting to get interested in sports and basketball and the NBA in a landscape where the Clippers are the superior team. Habits formed now tend to last.

Consider the Clippers’ youth initiatives: A growing Jr. Clippers program, and the organization’s ambition of refurbishing indoor and outdoor basketball courts throughout L.A. Add the potential of their own arena and the ability to forge their own distinct identity, and an organization not wed to the past, the way the Lakers seem to be.

This is a long play for the Clippers, and when all those kids grow up it’s going to be a far fairer fight. (Until then, just imagine dinner table conversations in those households where the parents are Lakers fans and the kids adopt the Clippers.)

• There is, by the way, another pecking order that we just assume will continue: Dodgers No. 1, Angels No. 2. And yet we are into the sixth season in which a good chunk of Southern California can’t watch Dodgers games on TV regularly, thanks to the spat between Spectrum, which owns the exclusive rights, and DirecTV, Dish and the non-Spectrum cable services that decline to pay what Spectrum is asking per subscriber.

Again, if you’re a kid growing up in SoCal and you can see Mike Trout on TV every night and Cody Bellinger hardly at all until the postseason, who might you pay more attention to?

• Of course, this assumes that regional sports networks remain our main vehicle for following our teams. Again, don’t assume. The smart people in various teams and leagues are already paying attention to streaming, pay-per-view, and presumably technologies that we probably can’t even imagine yet.

The Dodgers’ $8.35 billion contract with Spectrum runs through 2038. How do you think we’ll be consuming our games by then?

Jim Alexander is an Inland Empire native who started with his hometown newspaper, The Press-Enterprise, longer ago than he cares to admit. He's been a sports columnist off and on since 1992, and a full-time columnist since 2010. Yes, he's opinionated, but no, that's not the only club in his bag. He's covered every major league and major sports beat in Southern California over the years, so not much surprises him any more. (And he and Justin Turner have this in common: Both attended Cal State Fullerton. Jim has no plans to replicate Turner's beard.)

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